PDF2PageTurn

Page-turning Web pages offer a unique and realistic way of presenting a series of pages, especially text pages. Instead of clicking forward and back arrows, users turn pages with the cursor using a motion very similar to turning the pages of a book (one of the reasons it's great for text). It's not the easiest trick to program, but it's surprisingly easy to do with PDF2PageTurn. Its Wizard Mode turns your PDF documents into page-turning HTML documents and then saves or uploads them to your Web site with a few clicks. There's also an Advanced Mode that lets you exert a high level of control over the process as well as enabling additional options such as image quality. It's free to try with a watermark on output files and costs $119 to purchase, which isn't too much, considering what it does.

PDF2PageTurn's dialog-size user interface opens on Step 1 of the Wizard Mode. You can add files by browsing or dragging and dropping; we picked a multipage PDF (an old camera manual) and clicked Next. Step 2 involves setting image quality options with sliders, including zoom-in page settings. In Step 3, we entered a Title and optional Keywords and Description. Step 4 involves choosing one of four publishing methods: Save a local copy, upload to FTP server, upload to eBrochures/eCatalog for free, and create a standalone presentation for Windows or Android devices. We opted to save a local copy and, in Step 5, chose a language (plus optional custom home page URL and text) for the HTML Control Bar. Clicking Convert started and tracked the Conversion Process and Upload Progress and opened our finished job inside our browser when it finished. The pages displayed crisply and cleanly in a side-by-side view, though with a watermark. The page-turning effect is surprisingly natural. All that remained to do was to upload it to a Web site. The Advanced Mode tab basically does the same job as the Wizard, only with more options.

PDF2PageTurn delivered on making a difficult task as easy as drag, drop, and click. If you design and create Web sites, it's definitely worth a look.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of PDF2PageTurn 1.3.